Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1887-07-01
DILL NYE,s SPEECH,
Ire Delivers a Characteristic and Fat.
riotic Address.

| riOtic Address.
FELLOW CITIZENS: 1t has now been
one hundred and eleven years since the
most successful and most prosperous
republic known thus far to history, sent
forth upon the sultry air its hrst feeble
cry. One hundred and eleven years ago
this morning, the small red infant known
as American Liberty iammed her pur-
pie fists into her watery eyes and made
few desultory remarks which were
heard in the utternost parts of the earth,
To-day she is a full-grown person
with dignifed mien, and has had a
statue of herself taken, which stands in
the harbor of New York, and although
she lights up the country for miles
around, with her tall torch, there IL no
one who has ever been able to hold q
candle to her in the Liberty business
Those who are to-day within the
sound of my voice, and who are over
one hundred and eleven years of age,
will perhaps recall to their minds the
deplorable condition of things here in
our young and struggling country at
that time.
If we moved out West IN order to Sc
cure more freedom, the venturesome
savage filed us full of arrows till we
looked like toothpick. k.holders, and when
we came back for protection, the
naughty Briton assessed us and crushed
us beneath the iron heel CT the despot.
Now, wherever the starry banner
hangs out to greet the gentle breeze, all,
all are free. Little we know to-day,
here in America, what it is to suffer for
freedom. Liberty does good business
here in the United States now, and the
man who runs out of freedom shows
that he is shiftless man and a poor
provider.
Only little over century ago we
dared not go out after dark without a
chilled steel corset, for fear that the
maroon.colored children of the forest
might let the pale, shimmering moon
light in among our vital organs by
means OF their crude tomahawks. Then
life was indeed uncertain and Disagree
able. People remained at home rather
than return to their houses with holes
in themselves and wildly disheveled
brains.
Now man can start out and go any
where if he will pay his fare.
And so we are marching on, What q
| grand stride it is from the despOtism of
a century ago, to the long and short
haul of to-day! What a mighty leap
from the barbarism of hundred years
ago, to the glorious sunlight of freedom
which we enjoy now!
When once the slow. going OK team
and Belcher box wagon crept through
the wilderness, liable to be scattered
over the greensward at any moment by
the yelling lnjun,no the patient news.
paper man. the member of Congress
and the Associate Justice of the Su-
preme Court, with their coats over their
arms, toll along the level sweep of rail-
road which they assisted to build by
means of their land grants and moral
encouragement, looking ever and anon
over their shoulders for the approach of
the yelling modern Injun.
Times have indeed changed in the
past century. A hundsed years ago
whisky was sold at forty cents per gal
Ion, and every other man you met was
a statesman. Now you have to pay ff.
teen cents for enough whisky to wet the
bottom of small tumbler and there
hasn't been speech made in the House
of Representatives for three years that
was listened to by anybody but the sten.
ographer.
So liberty, while enlarging her field,
has not always ameliorated the condi-
tion of mankind. We are prone to boast
over the enormous mass of freedom
which we have accumulated here in
| America, and yet the freedom of. the
press has been greatly impaired, if
may be allowed that expression.
| Too much caste has been the result OF
recent laws. A year ago held up my
head and mingled with class of men
who to-day refuse TO recognize me.
They were then, and are now, of course,
men of wealth and social position; but
SO am L.
aIlude to the railway conductors OF
the United States.
| a year ago knew them from New
York to San Francisco, and associated
with them frequently, allowing myself
to be drawn forward into the smoking
car to mingle with them and visit pro
and con.
But what DO | find to day2 find the
| ohiic IiItii iAii'ilhS Oll Tue Sillt lIdlllS,
but they are arrogant, naughty and re-
served. One of them placed me on a
side track last spring in the night, in
the midst of pitiless storm, because
tried to renew a former acquaintance
with him, and ride into Chicago.
lie said that could not ride on my
acquaintance with him by no means,
but that l would soon be riding on the
small of my back if did not pay my
fare to the city.
And so remained that night in the
midst Of some ancient ruins called Mon.
mouth. ! WAS no; acquainted in Mon
mouth, and hal no business there.
Nobody ever had any business there
that ever card OF, and yet | remained
there through what was left of that ter
rible night.
often think that our forefathers did
not suffer any more hardshipS than we
do, and if had fitted myself fol it |
would just rs so III be furefathrr as tn
be the palnpered child of wealth that
Am to-day. BILL NYE.
MADAM EEF.